GRADES K-1 HONORABLE MENTION

I find sand in every beach.
I see waves dancing.
Coming forward and disappearing in to the sand.
Some sandcastles are small, some are big.
Every sandcastle is golden.
Every beach has sand.

Rishika Ganapathy
Grade 1, Sunnyvale

FatherSerenity Rayne Holmes
Kindergarten, Ventura

Taffy-longbilled CurlewAlex Miramontes
Grade 1, Paicines

Statement:
This is Taffy. He is a Long Billed Curlew. He is staring at a tree. Taffy eats yummy grasshoppers. He lives in Monterey with his four eggs. He likes to catch grasshoppers for his babies.

Dazzling Dolphins

Do spiral, do curl, do leap. Swim on!
Oh the dolphins go speeding through the water
Leaping, spiraling, spinning through the air
Past everythingthe dolphins go faster than lightning
Hasty dolphins striking through waves
In the water, the dolphins glow, striking on
No one faster, no one more sly
So raise a cheer for the dolphins!

Fatima Mohammed
Grade 1, Anaheim

El Capitan ParadiseSofia Soto
Grade 1, El Monte

Statement:
I picked El Capitan because I made a lot of memories. The beach looked beautiful. I saw a lot of neat rocks. We collected rocks and shells. I saw a lot of animals. I made a new friend Peki the woodpecker.

GRADES 2-3 HONORABLE MENTION

Swimming to the SunsetMila Hetzel
Grade 3, Sherman Oaks

Statement:
Our California coast is special because we get so many whales.

See TurtleJean Lee
Grade 3, Beverly Hills

Our California Coast

The sun sets across the horizon
As if it is a gift from heaven
Colors brighten like a winking star
Such little light across the horizon
Before your eyes the colors switch from
Orange to yellow across the sky
The stars flicker and they shine
They celebrate by dancing in the darkness
Past the horizon the sea lions
Snooze
The leopard sharks recharge
For the night waiting for the next day

Patrick Louie
Grade 3, San Diego

The Rocky Oceans

Falling waves crashing down
Over and under
On the bumpy rocks
Rolling waves go splashing
Down on the jagged rock edges
Small waves bumping on tall rocks
Big waves raining down on the soft
Yellow sand where pebbles and seashells
Hide under the warm sun
Waves fall and wash the shells
Into the deep blue infinite ocean

Tenzin Melroy
Grade 2, San Diego

Serene Sea
(Inspired by the crashing waves at Crystal Cove)

See the sea glistening in the sun, waves
Echoing through the mist, crashing
Rocks, drenching stones until the tide falls low, and
Easily etching long nicks in steep cliffs, eating up time with its many
Never ending changes,
Entitled to the ocean, pooling in
Sunlight, and dappling under the dazzling
Emerald light of the moon, it's big, it's blue,
And it has a vast expanse of sparkling water.

Ameen Mohammed
Grade 3, Anaheim

OctopusKarine Wong
Grade 3, San Francisco

GRADES 4-6 HONORABLE MENTION

River Flows to the Sea

The river looks lonely,
with all the branches
in it
The river looks lonely,
as it wipes
away the rocks
The river looks lonely
even with the
Foaming, rushing water
The river looks lonely
so it flows to the sea
And it would never
be lonely
again.

Elycia Eng
Grade 6, Rodeo

Straighten Up & Fly RightCatherine Gruen
Grade 5, Chino Hills

Statement:
I love drawing seabirds. I recently read two books written by Holling Clancy Holling. The first was Seabird, and the second Minn of the Mississippi. Upon seeing this contest, I thought that I would draw both a sea turtle and a seabird that are native to California.

Tower 8Joe Malamed
Grade 6, Tarzana

At the Water's Edge

The ocean curls around the sand,
Wrapping it like a soft blanket.
Water slowly peels away from the shore
like old paint

Waves swell and crash down,
Engulfing themselves in a moat of white foam.
I watch a seagull peck at
a long entangled string of kelp

I watch my dog,
A joyful streak of black
darting back and forth at the water's edge
Hunting fish and crustaceans

The sun sparkles on
the gentle ripples of the waves
Creating a glittering path of gold
that stretches across the sea

Alice McConnell
Grade 6, Woodacre

Laughter

Our bare feet thump on the ground
As we race down to the water's edge
We watch yet don't notice
As the fog creeps away on its soundless toes
And all we can see is the vast bright sea

We wade into the water together
The seaweed wraps itself around our legs
And we let it build
Until we have a mound that rises
Together we stand
Our feet beyond the fingers of water

And then we're above in the silent sky
Blurs swoop past us
Cawing to the endless glittering surface below
As our hearts soar like eagles

We plummet quickly far far below
Into the chattering blue
Rainbows flash by us
Weaving colors through the strands
Sleek creatures brush past us
Squeals and chirps fill the water
And we glide without resistance

Then the ocean's gentle fingers deliver us back to the shore
Where we lift the last branch onto our house of driftwood
Our home that was created together
Finally we see
The smiles on our faces and joy in our eyes
And we yell to the ends of the earth of our happiness

You can hear the laughter
It comes from everything
It tickles the sky
It flows to the ocean
And back to our little corner of California

April Wang
Grade 6, Cupertino

Waiting...Ziqi Zheng
Grade 4, Santa Rosa

Statement:
The novel Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell about a lonely girl who lived on one of the Channel Islands inspired me to paint this watercolor picture.

Sunset of San FranciscoKathy Zhi
Grade 4, Fremont

A Painting Forever Frozen in Time

Dark bands of kelp sway in the rippling ocean,
Raked viciously by an invisible breeze.
Churning waves pound against the rocky shore,
A lion's roar of wrath.

Lanky trees with gnarled dark roots,
Cringing, bracing against the strong coastal gale.
Distraught branches raised up like hands to the sky, in
A desperate plea for survival.

How long have the trees faced the blustering wind?
How long have the rocks endured the thunderous waves?
How long has the eagle searched for his hapless prey,
Outstretching his wings in the golden sun?

A picture, a painting forever frozen in time,
I whisper my question to the static sea, as
The rolling waves lap against the shore,
The soothing purr of a kitten.

Chelsea Zhou
Grade 6, San Ramon

GRADES 7-9 HONORABLE MENTION

Swimming in the Deep Blue

My hair flies around me
engulfing me
in a a protective bubble.
Little fish
swim around my toes,
sand slips through
my fingers,
gently
drifting to the ground.
Long seaweed kelp
reaches
toward the bright blue sky
as clear as a crystal

Emma Almaguer
Grade 7, San Rafael

No Time To WasteKaitlyn Chang
Grade 8, Pleasant Hill

Statement:
The California coast is in danger of losing its beauty if we do not take care of it. We need to take action to preserve our natural resources before it is too late.

Waiting

The pitter-patter of wings echo between the rocks, like rain against a cold window.
Snippets of the sun blink at the bobbing seagulls, waiting.
The veneer of fog pours over the stagnant, gray bay.
The clouds sigh over the hills,
Timidly awaiting the empty sky.
A blue, bitter breeze blows betwixt beryl grass.
The silent cold is a spider, crawling on skin and weaving webs of shivers.
Stillness cracks, spilling rays of sun.
Warmth pours over the serene water as the azure sky pulls its cloak of clouds closed again.

Kelly Chuang
Grade 7, Corte Madera

Our ShadowIsabelle M. Gonzales
Grade 7, Moreno Valley

Statement:
When I was a baby my father took a picture of me and my sister at the beach they got married at. As I was making this piece, I learned more about my parents' marriage and more about the picture. Before, I didn't know they got married on Laguna Beach and that they took the picture there. This was also the first time I did a watercolor landscape. I learned so many new things about my family and about painting through this piece. Also I drew six birds together which represented our family and two birds that were miscarried babies.

Shark's ToothJadan Ip
Grade 8, Manhattan Beach

Statement:
The California coastline is long and signatures with different beautiful seascapes. At Santa Cruz, I spotted a beautiful shark tooth protruding from the mouth of the sea. It's unique and looks really like a shark's tooth. Through my drawing, I would like to introduce the beauty of the Shark's Tooth Bay.

Beyond SittingArianna Louie
Grade 7, Torrance

Statement:
In my painting, there is a modern looking girl who is oversized in comparison to all the other natural features, like the sea life and mountains. I am trying to show how humans have the upper hand over Mother Earth. Thus human beings must take more responsibility over nature - to preserve and to protect. We cannot just sit back.

The Tangled FishJessica Qiu
Grade 8, San Jose

Statement:
Recently on the news, I found a report of a fish that grew inside a powerade wrapper, which is one of the many litters found in the ocean. This inspired me to draw my artwork when I thought of how we can observe the fish and learn from our mistakes. That is when I decided to draw a cute little boy looking through a magnifying glass, inspecting the fish that is tangled inside the powerade wrapper.

The Road Along the California CoastCindy Zhou
Grade 8, San Ramon

Statement:
In this artwork I drew a scene of a highway road by the California coast. I was inspired by the famous highways that stretch across the California coast. While drawing this scene I had a picture in my mind of trying to show how special California is, and the beauties of this unique state. I used acrylic paints, and a variety of techniques to portray the coastside texture.

GRADES 10-12 HONORABLE MENTION

Deep

We know more about space
Spiraling galaxies, bursting quasars, distant Earths
Than our own oceans,
On our own planet.

The sea is discovery,
And the rivers our paths towards it.
So we go down, down towards the North Pacific,
To the endless expanse of Gaia's tears
To the deep unknown.

Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Grade 12, Altadena

Under the Sea is the Place to BeMadeleine Aub
Grade 12, Alameda

Statement:
In my art, I love to depict places that I imagine would be fun places to spend an afternoon. In thinking about how I could use this style for this contest, I realized what a wonderful hobby turtleback-riding could be! Making this piece, I could envision the feeling of gliding through the water peacefully like the sea turtles I have observed at various aquariums and beaches throughout California. I couldn't help but to bring this feeling of movement into my art and end up with a finished piece that I can say quite confidently I would LOVE to jump into!

Turtle TideEmilee Chrisman
Grade 11, Riverside

Elegy for a Great White Shark

There was the sea & then not the sea.
The body & Then
Not the body.

Listen: the history of you is an easy story to tell.

You were a boy & your mother pulled you
from the water gasping, sweat silver on your back
in the noonday sun. You were a boy.

Only a boy. You played at pirating.
Who knows what the treasure was.

Then you were a man & the hook was a knife in your palm.
You named your ship Slaughterhouse. Killing floor.

You pulled fish from the water with your mother's hands.
Not a boy anymore. Not almost-drowned anymore.

You named the sea plunder. & you: pirate.

All the blood on deck & none of it yours.
All the great whites' backs, silver like yours.

There are some lives you never meant to catch.
Some creatures you never meant to kill. You meant to
make a living. Buy a house. Send your kids to college.

But here you are. Here they are:
skinned, dead, shark out of water,
shark drowning in air.

And here your history ends.

In all your stories you will call yourself
Odysseus. Telemachus.

Whatever makes it easiest when the last shark guts itself
on a line, grieving in a language

no-one can understand.

Sabine Holzman
Grade 12, Newport Beach

Home

This swell of water
That breathes on my toes, my heart
The ocean – my home

Anisha L. Johnson
Grade 12, Carlsbad

Into the Sea

Standing, feet fixed
on the cold, rough sand
wind circulating, grabbing
my hair in its violent grasp
and whipping it like a playful kitten
with a scrap of string.
Running towards the crashing blue,
eyes wide as its icy touch clutches my feet,
foam dancing around my toes.
Fully clothed, and yet
I feel a terrifyingly aggressive urge
to dive into the murky blue
let it envelop my bruised legs,
grab my exposed waist,
and pull my head down.
Seagulls would shout meaningless phrases,
waves would continue their
interpretive movements
along the shore,
And there would be no evidence
that I was ever there,
except for a shallow line
of small footprints
extending into the sea.

Zomina Peterson
Grade 10, Richmond

California Dreaming

Sandstone and broken hearts are what covered the sand. There was music playing in my head of every instrument at once, and it was beautiful, and I was spinning with my arms open wide to embrace the world. I wore a white dress; it was dirty from the sands of time, and ripped from my fight against them. My feet moved lightly over the beach, barely touching the ground, forming a faery circle in the shape of my dreams. The fear that potential failure was trying to pin on me is receding, as if it were a forgotten memory, fading as a retreating fog deep into the dark, and all that matters is the free fall of my childish nightmares, and my dreams rising to the occasion. I am free of your laws, and your rules, and your own fears. I am not your untapped potential, I am my own creation. And that is all that I think about as I spin down the coast, trapped by my own freedom in a world of a sun that is forever setting, all pastel colors and nostalgia and beauty, extending into forever, and the slowness of time makes me stay young. I, and all that is around me, is seen in a slightly golden haze, the pinks and yellows covering me and purifying my blood from my bare feet to my blonde hair flying as I twirl, heating and thawing me from my soul to my skin. I am not broken free, I am freed, I am not beautiful, I am beauty. And all that matters as I spin down the shore line, with the Pacific on one side and society on the other, is that I am free.

Harley-Ann Rasmussen
Grade 10, Los Banos

Chromatic OctopiSarah Ruyle
Grade 10, Riverside

Statement:
I've always been thalassophobic. So, in November of 2016, I did some short studies on marine life. One of which was of the octopus. Since then I've always respected these creatures highly and always been one of my favorite things to see while visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. My painting depicts a little madness that is also a little comical in my relationship with these marine life forms.

CrowdedMarina Zellers
Grade 11, Lompoc

Statement:
I always looked under the docks in the harbor when I was little,and imagined how life went on down there. This inspired me to draw the bright colors and interesting creatures that live in the intertidal zone.